Danish drugmaker Novo Nordisk and U.S. tech firm Valo Health said on Wednesday they were expanding their 2023 agreement to develop new treatments for cardiometabolic diseases using human data and artificial intelligence (AI).

Novo Nordisk expanded a deal with Valo Health to discover and develop treatments for obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease using human data and artificial intelligence.The deal extends an agreement signed in 2023 and will see Valo become eligible for increased payments and funding.Under the original deal, the companies agreed to develop up to 11 drug programs, primarily focused on cardiovascular disease, with Valo eligible to receive up to $2.7 billion in milestone payments, plus research and development funding and potential royalty payments.The new agreement set out Wednesday expands the scope to put a stronger focus on obesity and type 2 diabetes and includes near-term payments to Valo of up to $190 million.A further $4.6 billion in potential milestone payments will be made for up to nine new drug programs and Valo will also be eligible for more research and development funding and potential royalty payments.The companies will continue to use Valo’s drug discovery and development platform that uses patient data and AI to generate new insights and translate them into potential therapeutics.“We have already begun to realize the potential of combining the capabilities of Valo and Novo Nordisk to advance multiple AI-powered, human-centric programs, and we believe this partnership will help Novo Nordisk fulfill our ambition to expand the number of new drug programs we bring to the clinic,” said Marcus Schindler, executive vice president and chief scientific officer of Novo Nordisk.The Danish pharmaceutical giant recently reported disappointing results of a closely watched clinical trial testing an experimental anti-obesity treatment that the company hoped would be its next big weight-loss product.Write to Dominic Chopping at [email protected]